Astro Note

I wasn't expecting much when I decided to try out this show, but it's really good. You can tell how good it's going to be half way through the opening song.

The colors and animation are really bubbly and happy-go-lucky with the main girl being one of the cutest I've seen in any show. The comedy is great. A lot of the humor comes from the the eccentric side characters that live at the Astro Lodge, each one having a simple yet distinct personality and there's a good deal of care in how they all interact with each other. These side characters remind me a little ... of Yokai side characters in Natsume's Book of Friends, except quirkier.
The story starts out fairly straightforward with a great premise. There are a few back-stories revealed and some twists here and there. The side characters all have their own small arcs as the show progresses that gives them more depth and makes everyone
at the Astro Lodge feel like a big weird family. The story wraps up very nicely at the end, but I'm really hoping for a second season to spend more time with these characters

I haven't read/seen Mason Ikkoku but the premise of this show seems to be a parody
of that but still done with warmth. I fullheartedly recommend this for anyone who could enjoy a silly romance comedy with a dash of slices of life and sci-fi adventure.

When I first picked up Astro Note, it felt like a cozy callback to 90's era anime, with a bizarre yet simple premise and an eclectic cast of characters. But the more I watched, the more that coziness stepped aside for the increasing bizarreness of the growing plot.

Sure, the show starts off with an alien girl taking up residence in a boarding house full of eccentric individuals, with the goal of finding the mystic McGuffin of her people the Wid that would legitimize her claim to the throne, all while the Evil Hubs try to thwart her, so it's not like we aren't starting ... at a very 90's-era level of ridiculousness (and as an added bit of ridiculousness, Wid is meant to sound like Widow and Hub like Hubbie or Husband, which leads to all manner of misunderstandings throughout the show). However, as the show goes on, the main plot continues to grow more bizarre until it basically jumps the shark, IMHO.

However, the greater fun of the show comes not from the plot, but the characters and their development. I meant what I said when I called this cast eclectic, but the cast is one of the strongest elements of the show; as the show progresses, we get significant moments with each member of the house, learning more about them and seeing their struggles. Despite the show having a 90's feel, the characters all have a very modern depth to them, at least once you get to know them more.

So where does that leave the show? If you go in expecting a cozy little rom-com, this isn't for you. If you want a show that is full of the same randomness and charm as classic anime, however, then this might just be up your alley.

The only watchable rom-com released in the past decade was Love is War. Astro Note is kind of just such a middling and frankly just boring rom-com anime that brings absolutely nothing to the table.

The most fun thing about this show was that fact that Gintoki and Kagura's voice actor are coincidentally caretaker and child in similar roles. That's about it. I'd actually go ahead and say that the characters are the least of this shows problems. The show is host to many typical rom-com tropes, such as a love triangle, dense protagonist(s), and comedic side characters. And actually, the side characters --residents of Astro ... lounge-- are pretty fun. They fit the rom-com setting quite well and I could see them interacting in ways that could be funny. The problem is that the scenarios of this show are extremely insipid and boring. Teruko, the
Wakabayashi family, and Shoukichi are barely even present in the show even though they are core residents of Astro lounge. It really does make these potentially good characters just turn bland and fade into the background, where we can all suffer the same old rom-com love triangle setups involving shoin, Mira, Takumi, Aoi, and the dog.
While I was quite surprised at how solid the foundation of the show was, from decent characters to a very normal rom-com setup story, I could tell that the show was still an anime-original for how corporate and bland some of these episodes end up being. A lot of the episodes don't even make use of any of the characters and the comedy completely falls flat. There's a lot of plot devices and direct confrontation that's handled poorly, and despite the show trying to be comedic every step of the way, there was never any compelling manzai or comedic moments that I found fun. For example, there's an episode about a bug eating contest and it starts out like it could be fun, but there's no interaction with the characters AT ALL. The setting of the bug eating contest is purely there to progress Mira and Takumi's relationship rather than it being actually funny or interesting. Like, can you believe that the only thing that happens in this contest is that Takumi eats a lot of bugs and ends up winning, with literally nothing in between? None of the other Astro Lounge participants compete with each other, sabotage, or otherwise goof around? Is this even a rom-com? It's kind of disgusting actually...